Once connected, the "officer uses police training and experience to provide authority, de-escalate, diffuse threat, or dispatch help if needed," the app's website says.

In an attack situation, all you have time to do is react. Whether it's with a weapon or a stranger coming at you, instructors say whipping out an app for protection isn't realistic.

"In that one minute that it takes to show up, a lot of bad stuff can happen," said longtime martial arts expert and ex-deputy Jeff Santella.

Instincts are all you have, and seconds are all you get. Sometimes your hands are your only defense -- if you don't freeze first.

"Your brain kind of shuts down," Santella said.

He says that the app is good in theory but not in a real life situation.

"Extra gadgets per se or extra complications usually don't help."

Once you load the app and are connected, the officer on the other line tells the perp that they're being recorded, and if they don't stop, they'll be arrested.

But it's the sense of security that Sarah Basco is interested in.

"I wouldn't put it past it because today technology can do so much," she said.

The app claims it's faster and more efficient than calling the police. They even describing 911 as vintage. The publisher compares the app to systems like On-Star and home alarm systems, which can be expensive.

"The best thing you can do with that phone probably is beat someone in the face with it versus try to slide open an app," Santella said.

The Fort Myers Police Department told us using it just delays the potential victim's response.

"If you want to get EMS; if you want to get a real, live police officer with a car and a gun and handcuffs, you still need to go through that system," the defense expert said.

"The bare minimum being able to defend yourself because technology can't always be there for you," Basco said.

The app, On Camera, is free, but only larger cities, such as Miami and Los Angeles, have access to live officers.